Receptacles used as site furnishings include trash receptacles, ash urns for disposing tobacco ash and tobacco products, planters, and the like. They are typically used in amusement parks, sports arenas, airports, picnic grounds and other public venues. These venues often have large numbers of visitors that subject the receptacles to heavy use. The receptacles are also commonly exposed to the weather.
The receptacles must have durable, rugged construction to provide an economically long service life. Yet the appearance of the receptacles is as important as their utilitarian function and construction. The receptacles should enhance the appearance of the venue and work harmoniously as a design element in the overall feel or theme of the landscape architecture or site design.
Conventional receptacles used for site furnishings have a metal frame that may house a replaceable plastic or metal liner. The frame has a base that supports the liner. A cylindrical sidewall extends upwardly above the base to an open upper end. The base typically has a circular or rectangular periphery that defines the cross-sectional shape of the sidewall. Upper and lower end rings or bands surround the upper and lower ends of the sidewall respectively and provide structural reinforcement at the ends of the sidewall.
The sidewall must be strong and durable, and yet have a pleasing appearance. The sidewall is usually fabricated by one of three known methods. Although each method can produce a strong and durable receptacle, each method is limiting in the ornamental designs that can be achieved by such method.
In one method the sidewall is formed from a number of individual, separate structural members. These members may be bars, rods, or plates made from metal, wood, fiberglass or plastic. The individual members extend axially between the end bands and are individually fastened to the end bands. Additional members may extend circumferentially between the axial members.
This method of sidewall construction is labor intensive and is suitable only for relatively simple ornamental designs. Forming and assembling individual members into more complex or more fanciful designs is expensive.
In a second method the sidewall is formed from expanded metal or welded wire mesh. Expanded metal is metal sheet simultaneously slit and stretched into a grid having a non-raveling, open mesh. Welded wire mesh typically has a rectangular mesh pattern. The ornamental design of receptacles formed from expanded metal or wire mesh is dominated by the diamond or rectangular mesh pattern.
A third known method of fabricating the receptacle body is casting the body from aluminum or iron. Patterns and molds are required. Melted aluminum or cast iron is flowed into the molds and cooled to solidify and form the cylinder body. Aluminum is expensive and cast iron receptacles can be heavy. Cast receptacles, therefore, have limited markets.
Thus there is a need for an improved method of fabricating receptacles used as site furnishings. The method should not be labor intensive, nor require the use of expensive or particularly heavy materials. The improved method should make commercially feasible the manufacture of receptacles having unique ornamental designs that are impractical to manufacture using conventional methods.